As Israel's genocide in Gaza surpasses 1,000 days , the world still has limited access to the daily realities inside the enclave, with Gazans themselves becoming the primary witnesses documenting its devastation.
Journalists from around the world have been barred from reporting on the ground, while even some politicians have been denied entry. Among the few independent witnesses able to document events are the doctors who have entered Gaza to treat the wounded.
Since the genocide began, humanitarian medical teams have worked inside the enclave's devastated healthcare system, witnessing the destruction firsthand rather than through screens.
Some doctors captured their experiences on phones and cameras — footage that became the foundation of the documentary Life Support. The film chronicles two years of Israel's war on Gaza through the eyewitness accounts, footage and experiences of international doctors who volunteered with emergency medical teams between November 2023 and 2025.
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Daniele Rugo, known for his feature documentaries — including The Soil and the Sea, the first cinematic record of mass graves from Lebanon's Civil War — Life Support brings together an incredible creative team, including Robert Del Naja and Masahiro Hirakubo, as well as executive producers, including Susan Sarandon, Melissa Barrera, Farah Nabulsi and Sawsan Asfari, among others.
Daniele says the aim was to share an accurate account of the doctors' experiences working in Gaza.
"The eyewitness accounts of the doctors were some of the very, very few international independent eyewitnesses that were allowed into Gaza," he tells The New Arab .
"We tried as much as possible for the voices of the doctors to be the centre, the engine of the film, as well as their emotional journey." The film features several doctors, including Dr Victoria Rose, a plastic surgeon and Professor Nick Maynard, a gastrointestinal surgeon, who recalled and filmed their experiences working in Gaza not only in the height of Israel's genocide , but also before the war broke out.
Another doctor sharing her account was Tanya Haj Hassan, who delivered a speech at the United Nations on 26 November 2024, detailing her experience working in Gaza and advocating for Palestinians and healthcare workers there.
"It was a privilege to be able to amplify the voices of the doctors, and to do it in a way that put their testimonies first rather than any particular editorial line," Daniele continues. "It was very important for us, first of all, to collect and gather all of these testimonies in one place, and to make sure that they were given the space, the time to be articulated fully to show the evidence that they have been gathering."
Along with the emotive accounts, the feature film details the doctors' journey from the difficulties in getting into Gaza and immersing themselves in the hospitals amid Israeli bombardment.
The healthcare workers also speak of doctors' guilt about being able to walk away, fearing what they might return to, and, when they do, going back to even more destruction.
One of the doctors who recounts her time is Dr Ana Jeelani, a consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon from Liverpool, who has been to Gaza twice during the war after seeing the Al-Shifa hospital being targeted by an Israeli airstrike in 2024.
"Once you have been to Gaza, you are desperate to get back in," Dr Ana tells The New Arab .
"I still don't know to this day what gave me the strength. I didn't ever think I was brave, I didn't ever think at any point about the danger, I just felt it was the right thing to do," she adds. The doctor says she took part in Life Support to ensure her story was told correctly.
"I thought it was an opportunity for us as medics to not have our voice or narrative changed. It was a very authentic process, and I think history books need to document this."
The film shows Dr Ana vlogging her experience, with drones audible in the background, highlighting the conditions Palestinians in Gaza and the doctors are living in.
"It brought up a lot of anger," Dr Ana continues. "Our role as doctors is never to differentiate between a patient in front of us, whether they are in Gaza or in Liverpool. We're just not built like that."
She adds, "The fact that we could see our patients not getting the care that they needed or deserved for their dignity was really difficult." Life Support also captures the stark contrast between Gaza before and during Israel's genocide, combining the doctors' testimonies with footage showing the enclave before the scale of devastation that followed.
Daniele explains that when production began in 2024, the team had no idea how the situation would unfold or how far the destruction would escalate.
"It was already horrifying in the first few weeks, and yet as we followed the doctors through their footage and gathered their testimonies that were coming back, it was clear that things were getting worse, and worse, and worse," Daniele recalls.
"I don't think any of us, including the doctors who we were speaking to, expected this to turn into a full-on genocide, and to go on for such a long time." 'We're not the story' While viewers hear the stories of the international doctors, Life Support does not forget the Palestinian healthcare workers risking their lives while working amid Israel's horrors. Gazan doctors have been internally displaced, lost family members, faced zero access to food, medical and humanitarian aid , along with working while worrying about their families.
Dr Ana reminds viewers in the film that the international doctors are merely vessels to carry the stories of their Palestinian colleagues.
"We're not the story. I know the Western doctors are the storytellers in here, but we're talking about what's happening to our friends, our colleagues, our patients in Gaza," Dr Ana tells The New Arab .
"Anytime we're faced with discomfort, I think all of us probably think that it's nothing compared to the discomfort our Palestinian colleagues are feeling, and so you just put that to the side." View this post on Instagram A post shared by @pressurecookerarts Beyond the medical trauma, Life Support documents the human cost faced by Gaza's healthcare workers — the colleagues lost, the lives cut short, but also the moments of connection and camaraderie that helped doctors endure amid the devastation.
"So much medical talent from Gaza has been lost," Dr Ana says.
"That's someone's son or daughter, someone's brother or sister, someone's child, someone's future fiancé. There's just so much loss there." 'I told them everything I saw' Dr Ana reports that she tried to return a third time, but her request was denied. However, she asserted, she would definitely go back if she could.
For the neutral viewers who may not know what's happening in Gaza or its history, Life Support not only educates but also corroborates the facts with doctors' testimonies and anecdotes.
"You have got doctors of different backgrounds, different ages, different ethnicities, and the majority of the people that you might meet if you ever went to an NHS appointment, and we're all saying the same thing," Dr Ana says.
"What more verified sources can you have than the doctors who are working in your own NHS? We treat you day in, day out, we provide you the highest level of care, what more verified sources do you need, really?"
She suggests watching the film with someone who may not be educated about the war on Gaza, or, in her words, "who still drinks their can of Coke."
Dr Ana continues, "We've got to get out of our echo chambers, our bubbles, and take those people who this might not be their thing.
"We know that this great injustice is happening, but it's really hard to get the person who doesn't know and doesn't care to get engaged with it. You want to make it really uncomfortable to support Israel."
As the film draws to a close, the doctors condemn the international community for the inaction in stopping Israel's genocide, ending with words from Gazan writer, Alaa Alqaisi, along with images of war-torn Gaza and its people, reminding viewers that Israel's genocide is still going on. "And though the world may have looked away, let this much be remembered: we named the hunger, we bore it, we endured. Let that remain." - Alaa Alqaisi Director Daniele Rugo hopes Life Support will bring attention back to Gaza, noting the news cycle's habit of moving on, despite the war still ongoing. "What you hear these doctors reporting, is still happening. This situation is unfolding," he tells The New Arab. "To listen to the doctor's voices today is because this is not finished, it is present, it is ongoing."
Looking back on Life Support, Daniele says the process was difficult but ultimately inspiring, as he witnessed the courage of doctors who risked their lives and spoke out about what they saw in Gaza.
"It was extremely inspiring to see how brave these doctors were, not just in terms of putting their lives at risk while supporting Palestinian healthcare workers in Gaza but also speaking out," he says.
Dr Ana Jeelani is glad she did her part in sharing her story for something to look back on in the future.
"If I never go back, I can at least say that 20 years down the line I saw that there was gross injustice, just absolutely the worst that you could imagine, and I was part of a project that documented that," she shares.
"I will always be able to say that I told them everything I saw." Life Support releases in UK cinemas on 10 July Anam Alam is a staff writer at The New Arab. She frequently writes about human rights and social issues, including women's rights and sex education Follow her on X: @itsanamalam